Ms. Deschênes, you know that I have a great deal of respect for the department. I spent the best years of my life there, in particular as the minister. I have enormous respect for you.
However, when I see that only 168 permanent visas have been issued and objectives for the number of checks to be done in Sydney have been established, it seems to me that saying that there is a special unit just because the word "Haiti" appears on an envelope to ensure that cases are dealt with...
There is a domestic crisis right now within the Haitian community, and I am wondering why the numbers are so low. I understand about your 1,500 temporary visas and all that, but it seems to me that the minister could have used his authority to ask you not only to accelerate the process but also to put in place a kind of procedure that would have allowed visas to be issued much more quickly. Another possibility would have been to use the inland process much more—as you have done for some 300 cases—and tell these people to come to Canada, since we know they will come here in any case, in order to resolve the situation.
Do you think that things could have been done differently? Unless—and I know what the answer will probably be—you are sure that things could not have been done differently?
Members of Parliament, especially those from the Montreal region, are receiving a huge number of requests from the Haitian community.
Could the department have taken another approach?